David Morgan O’Connor

Normal Folks

The organized are Right
The Left are cutting each other

Turning the middle
Right Street
fighting each other over dimes
turning allies into obstacles

inflexible vocabularies
change with wind

pass me that oyster knife darling
(champagne socialist)
indentured waiter serves
They believe
yes
aliens are among us even though
I am not one I support
their right to attend gee this non-dairy
butter is just gorgeous
(room-filling guffaw)
I’m summering and lunching and turning
whatever I want into a verb

I am the steps of power shining in the rain

Wigs acceptable
Whips on sale

Can’t keep bullets on the shelf
Work ethic is high but labour is low

Talk quietly
protest safely
extinguish

Yes
you and me
we are all illegal
Now go back to your phone

David Morgan O’Connor is from a small village on Lake Huron. After many nomadic years, he is based in Albuquerque, where an MFA and short story collection progresses. His writing has appeared in Barcelona Metropolitan, Across the Margin, Headland, LimeHawk, Origin Journal, Cecile’s Writers, Bohemia, Beechwood, Fiction Magazine, After the Pause, The Great American Lit Mag (Pushcart nomination), The New Quarterly and The Guardian.@dmoconnorwriteshttp://davidmorganoconnor.com/